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Syndicate

Kurdish Language

Sun, 25/07/2010 - 07:18

Kurdish (Kurdish: Kurdí, كوردی, Kurdî, Кöрди) language belongs to the Indo-European family of languages. Kurdish dialects are members of the northwestern subdivision of the Indo-Iranic language, Iranic branch of this largest family of language in the world. The Kurdish language is an independent language, having its own historical development, continuity, grammatical system and rich living vocabularies. The Kurdish language was derived from the ancient "Median" language or "Proto-Kurdish". Ca. 30 million people in the high land of Middle East, Kurdistan, speak different dialect of Kurdish.

In some linguistic sources the south west Iranic branch of Indo-Iranic languages Lurrí (Luri) group has been classed as a subgroup of Kurdish language. Although Lurrí contain a great number of Kurdish words there are still many unanswered questions regarding the relation between Lurrí and the rest of Kurdish language.

There is no standard nomenclature for the divisions of Kurdish dialects, not just in the works of Western scholars but among the Kurds themselves. All the native designators for local language and dialects are based on the way the spoken language of one group sounds to the unfamiliar ears of the other. Dimila and their vernacular, Dimili, are therefore called Zaza by the Badínaní speakers, with reference to the preponderance of Z sounds in their language (Nikitin 1926). The Dimila call the Badínaní dialect and its speakers Xerewere. The Gorans refer to the Soraní as Kurkureand Wawa. The Soraní speakers in turn call the Gorans and their vernacular, Goraní, Mecú Mecú, and refer to the tongue and the speakers of Badínaní as Ji Babu.

Table 1) Some alternative names for the Dialect Groups in Kurdish language.